Helpful resources
Saving money when you purchase medications
Regardless of your health insurance, I suggest that you go to www.goodrx.com or the GoodRx app on your phone, and enter your zip code and the name and dosage of your medication. You will see the price that you will pay for medication at pharmacies close to you, without using your insurance. Once you decide which pharmacy that you will be using, you can download it to your phone, or print it. If you are taking a brand medication, I also suggest that you go to the medication’s website (just type the name of your medication into your browser) and look for the section of the website that mentions discounts. Please note that regardless of your insurance, you may find a better deal using GoodRx. However, patients who are insured by Medicare are prohibited by law from using manufacturer’s discounts from manufacturers.
Websites which provide useful information regarding psychiatric illnesses (as well as medical illnesses) and treatment.
While all of these websites are reliable sources of information, they do not replace discussions of your illness and treatment with me.
Johns Hopkins Medical School
Mayo Clinic
Harvard Medical School
American Psychiatric Association
National Alliance on Mental Illness
WebMD
Other sources of information regarding medications
All brand name medications for depression and anxiety maintain their own websites. The easiest way to access them is to type the name of the medication into your browser. These websites include general patient information as well as prescribing information (also known as package inserts). The FDA requires that package inserts list all side-effects that have ever been reported to them, and do not necessarily reflect how often they actually occur. It is always my practice to discuss any questions regarding side-effects, which side-effects are not unusual with medications, and which side-effects are causes for concern. Manufacturers websites are forbidden by law to mention any “off-label” uses of medications—the use of medications for the treatment of depression and anxiety which are commonly prescribed but have not been formally approved by the FDA for those reasons. It is always my practice to inform patients if I am prescribing medications “off-label.”
Medications which are only available as generic medications will not have prescribing information from manufacturers, but the same information can still be accessed online by entering the name of the medication in your browser and searching for “patient information.”
Patient information from your pharmacist
When you pick up a prescription from the pharmacy, it is always accompanied by a medication guide and safety information. As is the case with package inserts, they list side-effects, but do not necessarily list which are most likely to occur.